Ice Miners Top Johnstown in Shootout Again
January 17, 2015 - North American Hockey League (NAHL)
Keystone Ice Miners News Release
JOHNSTOWN, PA - For the second consecutive Friday and third straight head-to-head, it took a shootout to decide a game between the Keystone Ice Miners and Johnstown Tomahawks and like a week ago, it was the Ice Miners prevailing. In a bit of a repeat of last week, Keystone won the shootout 1-0, with a different final score of 3-2.
For the first time since their inaugural game in September, the Ice Miners opened the scoring against the Tomahawks when Jeff Solow netted his first goal as an Ice Miner, deflecting a shot off a Tomahawks defender and over Johnstown netminder Jacob Gwillim at the 3:10 mark of the opening period. Keystone had a strong period, outshooting Johnstown 10-7 and leading 1-0.
Early in the 2nd frame, the Ice Miners extended their lead when Joey Sofo got free and slid a puck behind Gwillim to make it a 2-0 game. The goal game at 4:23 and was Sofo's 2nd of the season. After failing on a five minute powerplay, the Ice Miners lost momentum and saw their lead shrink to one when Casey Linkenheld jammed home a powerplay goal, his team-leading 14th tally of the season, at the 14:40 mark. The score after two periods was 2-1 Keystone.
After a lengthy delay due to an official injury, Johnstown got even at the 8:30 mark of the third period when Zac Robbins pounced on a Tanner Barnes rebond and tied the game at two. It was Robbins' 2nd goal of the season. Keystone had a chance in the final seconds of regulation and Johnstown had a late powerplay chance in overtime, but for the third straight time in the season series, the game went to a shootout.
Joey Sofo, who scored the only goal of last Friday's shootout, beat Gwillim in round two, deflecting a shot off Gwillim and over him into the net. Nick Kossoff did the rest, stopping all five Tomahawk attempts to add on to his 40 saves in regulation. It was Kossof's 8th win.
The Ice Miners and Tomahawks play again on Saturday night at the Ice Mine. Game time is 7:30 and all first responders receive a special $8 admission.
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